State Department’s Inspector General Situation Attracts Scrutiny

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa is questioning about why the State Department does not have a Senate-confirmed inspector general.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this week, Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said that “multiple” U.S. officials told Congressional investigators that the Sept. 11 attack on the Benghazi facility was the culmination of months of smaller attacks, including a June incident when a bomb blew a hole in the consulate’s exterior fence.

Diplomatic officials had repeatedly asked for greater security, the two lawmakers asserted.

The State Department has convened a board to review the Benghazi attack, headed by retired diplomat Thomas Pickering, who served as the ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992, among many other diplomatic assignments.

Brian said former inspectors general at State have often previously served as diplomats, experience that is not optimal for the position.

“In some ways, a diplomat has the opposite personality of who you want as an inspector general,” she said.